IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA No. 19-0722 Filed July 22, 2020 IN RE THE MARRIAGE OF SABET K. TEIA AND SUHEIR E. KHALIL Upon the Petition of SABET K. TEIA, Petitioner-Appellant, And Concerning SUHEIR E. KHALIL, Respondent-Appellee. ________________________________________________________________ Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Scott D. Rosenberg, Judge. Husband appeals the spousal support award, the property division plan, and the attorney fee obligation in this dissolution matter. AFFIRMED AS MODIFIED. Jeremy L. Merrill of Lubinus Law Firm, PLLC, Des Moines, for appellant. A. Zane Blessum and Susan R. Stockdale, Winterset, for appellee. Considered by Bower, C.J., and Greer and Ahlers, JJ. 2 GREER, Judge. After the district court awarded Suheir Khalil spousal support and a property settlement, her husband, Sabet Teia, appealed asserting the awards were inequitable. We affirm the award as modified in this opinion and award Suheir appellate attorney fees. I. Background Facts and Proceedings. Sabet was born in 1974 and Suheir in 1982. The parties married in June 2002 in Sudan. The couple immigrated to the United States in 2004 under refugee status. All of Sabet’s high school education was in Sudan, and he attended a community college trucking program after immigrating to this country. Suheir’s education ended with the completion of fifth grade in Sudan. She has no specialized training. Sabet filed for dissolution of the marriage in October 2017, when he moved out of the family home.1 They bought the home on contract in 2012. Before the separation, Sabet paid the contract payment, the house insurance, the real estate taxes, and the utilities. When he left the home, he stopped all payments towards these obligations. Without the help Sabet provided, Suheir failed to make the contract payments and she was evicted from the home during the forfeiture process. The home reverted to the contract holders. Now both parties live in rental units. With no home equity to divide, the main assets accumulated during the marriage are the semi-trucks bought for Sabet’s over-the-road trucking job and the parties’ personal vehicles. The district court awarded Sabet all of these work 1 The parties have no children. 3 vehicles and three personal vehicles. The record is unclear about the history of all the vehicles but one semi-truck was bought after separation. And, after separation, Suheir bought a 2005 Lexus and currently makes payments of $180 per month toward that purchase. She received that vehicle along with the undisclosed debt.2 Each party was awarded their personal possessions and any accounts held in his or her name in the dissolution order. After a trial, the district court required Sabet to pay Suheir spousal support of $1000 per month for sixty months and a cash settlement of $8350 to equalize the disparity of assets between the parties. The court ordered Sabet to pay $6050 towards Suheir’s attorney fees. Sabet appeals. Suheir requests payment for her appellate attorney fees of $700.3 II. Standard of Review. A trial involving the dissolution of a marriage is an equitable proceeding. ...
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals